Youths In Freetown Stone Fire Force For Delay In Responding To Fire Call

Angry youth pelted stones at Fire Force last Saturday for their alleged delay in responding to stress calls as fire engulfs the Kai Samba family house on Siaka Stevens Street, Awoko reports.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Eyewitnesses explain that the fire started around 10:00am and that frantic calls were made to the Fire Force Headquarters but to no avail. The eyewitnesses maintain that the late arrival of the Fire Fighters over an hour later after the interior of the concrete house had been completely gutted by the fire, angered the youth.

They pelted the fire vehicle with stones and other missiles with such ferocity that the driver of the fire engine vehicle had to make a sudden U-turn at Liverpool Street down towards the Connaught Hospital to escape from the mob.

“We sent bike riders to inform the Fire Force at their headquarters, but nothing happened unstill the roof and the wooden floor house had burnt and collapsed when heard the siren of the fire vehicle approaching,” an angry youth lamented.

The National Fire Force is notorious for their late arrival at scenes of fire accidents which has frustrated most citizens. On Friday, 29th January instant, they arrived late at the scene of fire accident involving the house of Professor Eldred Jones at Leicester.

“I can understand the frustration of people faced with fire accidents when they hope that fire fighters would come to save them and we are not readily available. We have our own challenges ranging from accessing water and moving unhindered across the city,” an anonymous fire fighter explained.

There are only two water hydrants in Freetown- one at Femi Turner Drive in Goderich and the other in Brookfields.

Since December 2015 a number of fire incidents have been recorded in the Freetown, with none salvaged by the Fire Force. In one of such incidents on Christmas Day when the Safecon Petrol Station at Shell caught fire, three people perished and properties worth millions of Leones lost.

Fire incidents have been reported in the Wilberforce community; Siaka Stevens Street (Electricity House), Tengbeh Town, Leicester, Kissy and the list is long.